Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Very nice toy, wife seen it yet?? I was thinking about something like that myself but really can't justify the money on a single toy besides it would make all of my recent toys useless by comparison.

Hello Specmaster,

One of my duties here in the TEA group is to monitor members who are wavering in their addictions. You seem to be on the verge of "using excuses" for not buying another piece of cool gear. I'm sorry, but I'll have to report this to TEA management ASAP.

I'm sure you understand, someone will be along soon to counsel you personally.

Xrunner

Haha, I think if i took up tggzzz's proposition I would need my head felt for bumps, someone who already has 5 DMM's and 4 Analogues and a further 4 DBMM's clearly has a bit of an addiction to multimeters so to think of fleabaying them is unforgivable so you'd better someone round to council him for sowing bad seeds first   

[Specmaster]

The Fiat might have cost you £0 but I bet your wife will more then make up for that with her makeup. I can picture the scene now, every time you open a cupboard door, makeup will fall out because its crammed in so tight  You should convince her that she looks far better without all of that stuff plastered on, I did with my wife, think about it, more money for new toys, that power supply is as good as sitting on your bench right now. 

[bd139]

Hahahaha 

Unfortunately all it ends up doing is working as a "financial damage amplifier". Perhaps I don't need one of those kidneys after all

Just found out that the probes that ship with the meter are shit! Have dug the old Pomona ones out - much nicer

[Specmaster]

Update, just had a counter offer from the USA, almost the asking price, I've countered him again at my last offer with a note explaining that by the time shipping and import tax is added, it's almost as much as a buying locally 

[bd139]

I hate it when people do that. If a seller is not willing to take much of an offer, they shouldn't use the offer option!

[Specmaster]

Tomorrow I pick up the wife from Gatwick so I might be in the same boat as you when she sees my new additions, soon be time batten down the hatches   

[bd139]

I wish you luck!

I have considered purchasing a shed to hide in under such situations 

[med6753]

The addiction struck again. When I go on E-bay I lose all control. Another vintage Fluke to join the menagerie. Fluke 8600A. Should be here in a few days. Of course I'll give a full report when it arrives. Just like I did with the other recent Fluke acquisitions.

"I love the warm glow of vintage red LED's in the morning"   


(Stock pix, not the actual unit)

It arrived yesterday. As I unpacked it I found that the bail was broken in shipment. No big deal, epoxy fixed that. It had a last calibration date of June 13, 2016 so that looked promising. Initial DCV readings were spot on. Everything was great until I tried different ranges. Tried ACV and again it was good. But as soon as I switched back to DCV there was buzzing and the reading dropped to zero. Tried ACV again and it was OK. Ohms was OK. DCV dead. It appears that one of the many relays in this unit is either stuck or died. I did a quick check of the power supply and it's OK. So it goes on the project shelf for now until I get around to it. Oh well.

Update. It's fixed. As was suggested I did check all the reed relays individually and they were all OK. So started troubleshooting and found that DCV wasn't even getting to the input voltage divider. And while probing it started working. Found the culprit. A cold solder joint on the K-1 function relay. All is good now. And yes, the calibration is right on the money for DCV and ohms. Tomorrow I'm going to a local hamfest and see what triggers my addiction. 

[bd139]

  nice one!

Can't beat the red LEDs on the early 8000 series

[neo]

nice one!

Can't beat the red LEDs on the early 8000 series

In my opinion you can with the heavenly orange glow of the nixie tube displays also in the 8000 series, though the red LEDs are my second favorite.

[bd139]

Nixies make my eyes go funny. I really love the glow but the depth changes between digits mess with me. Solartron and Heathkit made panaplex multimeters if I remember. Best of both worlds

[neo]

That interesting actually, the depth of the digits on nixies does screw with my head too but i always found it to be in a pleasant way.

[bitseeker]

URI, sorry to hear about your cycling accident. Speedy recovery! Meanwhile, I guess you'll be finding lots of good deals on eBay before anyone else notices them.

If a seller is not willing to take much of an offer, they shouldn't use the offer option!

Amen!

[tggzzz]

Nixies make my eyes go funny. I really love the glow but the depth changes between digits mess with me. Solartron and Heathkit made panaplex multimeters if I remember. Best of both worlds

...and Datrons.

There are currently several such Datron 1061s (not 1061As) for sale by Ramco/Bidspotter, prices £1-£16 + uplift. I don't need another; they packed and shipped mine to me for £15.

[bd139]

Ooh must resist. I nearly bought a Heathkit nixie DMM then other day. Managed to resist.

I’ve only got two things on the shopping list I actually need now; a spectrum analyser and an Agilent E3611A. The latter because it’s not made of poo, doesn’t overshoot and doesn’t have LCD displays that I can’t see like on my Thandar TS3022S.

[Cubdriver]

Nixies make my eyes go funny. I really love the glow but the depth changes between digits mess with me. Solartron and Heathkit made panaplex multimeters if I remember. Best of both worlds

...and Datrons.

There are currently several such Datron 1061s (not 1061As) for sale by Ramco/Bidspotter, prices £1-£16 + uplift. I don't need another; they packed and shipped mine to me for £15.

Data Precision made some, too.  I'd love a Datron 1061, but they don't seem to appear much on this side of the pond for less than a small fortune.



-Pat

[guido]

Bought my 5th oscilloscope. 

Congratulations, you are half way!

Have two of those data precisions, very nice displays. Recently got some smaller panaplex displays, thinking about making a clock with those.

[bd139]

I'm liking those displays a lot now. Nice and clear. That's another few things added to my ebay scraper script now

Power supply hunt is off. I found a Thurlby Thandar PL310 in the cupboard I forgot I had. Checked cal and it was waaaaay off so just ran it through the steps and it's spot on now.

Displays I can see in my dingy craphole at last



Not too enamoured with the TS3022S because the displays are LCD so you can't see 'em and the thing reads "1." instead of the current if it goes over current. It can shift 2.2A so this is a pain in the arse. I'll stick it on ebay tomorrow. I wouldn't inflict it on anyone here. Sorry for my sins with respect to reducing the amount of test gear I have 

[Specmaster]

I'm liking those displays a lot now. Nice and clear. That's another few things added to my ebay scraper script now

Power supply hunt is off. I found a Thurlby Thandar PL310 in the cupboard I forgot I had. Checked cal and it was waaaaay off so just ran it through the steps and it's spot on now.

Displays I can see in my dingy craphole at last

Not too enamoured with the TS3022S because the displays are LCD so you can't see 'em and the thing reads "1." instead of the current if it goes over current. It can shift 2.2A so this is a pain in the arse. I'll stick it on ebay tomorrow. I wouldn't inflict it on anyone here. Sorry for my sins with respect to reducing the amount of test gear I have 

Nice one, whats the 50V mean in the top display?

Doesn't the TS3022S have backlights on the LCDs? If not could it be modified then you wont have xrunner after you 

Thats the problem with LCD screens, you need to have good illumination in front of them to read them clearly, especially as you get older I'm finding, besides its always nice to have a nice glow from LEDs or VFTDs. 

[bd139]

50V is the "secondary display". It's indicating the current range there but it can be set to display another parameter such as if you have an AC voltage set up it will show the frequency or a DC voltage it is riding on (within the limits of the dynamic range of the ADC).  It can also do current and voltage at the same time but I haven't worked that out yet

The TS3022 doesn't have any backlight unfortunately and I couldn't see anywhere I could slide it in. The entire power supply is a thin sandwich stuck to the front panel basically which means there's no room to add it without doing some serious modifications. Yes same problems with my sight. I've also got floaters in my left eye which causes problems with low contrast displays like LCDs.

I will buy more things to cover my sins do not fear xrunner!

[bitseeker]

Data Precision made some, too.  I'd love a Datron 1061, but they don't seem to appear much on this side of the pond for less than a small fortune.



-Pat

Pat, I actually forgot about those DP3500 since getting a Fluke 8100A. See, I have DMMs with backlit LCD, regular LCD, segmented LED, dot matrix LED, VFD, and Nixie tubes. Now I have to get one with Panaplex, which you've dutifully reminded me of.

[Specmaster]

50V is the "secondary display". It's indicating the current range there but it can be set to display another parameter such as if you have an AC voltage set up it will show the frequency or a DC voltage it is riding on (within the limits of the dynamic range of the ADC).  It can also do current and voltage at the same time but I haven't worked that out yet

The TS3022 doesn't have any backlight unfortunately and I couldn't see anywhere I could slide it in. The entire power supply is a thin sandwich stuck to the front panel basically which means there's no room to add it without doing some serious modifications. Yes same problems with my sight. I've also got floaters in my left eye which causes problems with low contrast displays like LCDs.

I will buy more things to cover my sins do not fear xrunner!

I wondered if it was indicating the range you selected, could be a bit confusing at times though if you also use the 2nd to show something else then you might make a mistake?

There's a Fluke 8050A 8505A going for reasonable money in the states, I'm half tempted to go for it but it is so bloody big, I can get almost all of my bench meters in the same space.. but those 6.5 digits are so inviting, all glowing red 

[Cubdriver]

Pat, I actually forgot about those DP3500 since getting a Fluke 8100A. See, I have DMMs with backlit LCD, regular LCD, segmented LED, dot matrix LED, VFD, and Nixie tubes. Now I have to get one with Panaplex, which you've dutifully reminded me of.

It is my great pleasure to have been of assistance!   

Just be forewarned - they make very similar looking ones (if memory serves, the 3400 is one such) that have LED displays.  One hint that helps to differentiate the displays is that the panaplex is slightly asymmetrical height-wise compared to a seven segment LED - note that the middle segment is just above the halfway point, making the bottom 'loop' slightly larger than the top one.  Additionally, it seems that the panaplex decimal point is slightly below the bottom segment, whereas with LEDs it's usually in line with the bottom segment.

-Pat

[med6753]

I'm liking those displays a lot now. Nice and clear. That's another few things added to my ebay scraper script now

Power supply hunt is off. I found a Thurlby Thandar PL310 in the cupboard I forgot I had. Checked cal and it was waaaaay off so just ran it through the steps and it's spot on now.

Displays I can see in my dingy craphole at last

Not too enamoured with the TS3022S because the displays are LCD so you can't see 'em and the thing reads "1." instead of the current if it goes over current. It can shift 2.2A so this is a pain in the arse. I'll stick it on ebay tomorrow. I wouldn't inflict it on anyone here. Sorry for my sins with respect to reducing the amount of test gear I have 

Nice one, whats the 50V mean in the top display?

Doesn't the TS3022S have backlights on the LCDs? If not could it be modified then you wont have xrunner after you 

Thats the problem with LCD screens, you need to have good illumination in front of them to read them clearly, especially as you get older I'm finding, besides its always nice to have a nice glow from LEDs or VFTDs. 

That's where a goose neck LED spotlight comes in handy 

[Specmaster]

.All these extra lights just get in the way though